She Has Your Eyes
by PinkROmantic
Summary: An old affair of Dante leaves a baby at Devil May Cry's door, thus reopening old wounds. While they try to figure out how to deal with the unexpected new addition to the family, the trio of hunters are faced by mysteries that may be better left unsolved. Past Dante/OC. Slight Lady/Trish.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm reposting this story I published from AO3, it went through a very thorough revision and now it's more of my liking.**

 **Warnings: Babysitting, Slight Child Neglect, Necessary OCs, Past Relationships, Implied Abuse, Dante and his gals being emotionally inadequate for the obvious reasons.**

 **Please do leave your feedback if you liked what you read and/or want to give any criticism. I'd appreciate it a lot!**

* * *

 _ **She Has Your Eyes**_

 **by PinkROmantic**

 **Chapter 1**

 _She wore a ring with a large yellow gemstone in her long bony fingers resting under her chin. It was her grandmother's ring, she must've returned to that house to pick it up of all things. Her thin lips struggled to find a smile and her eyes wouldn't meet his again._

 _She was afraid of him, but for what reason, he couldn't decide._

 _"… I'm sorry… I'm bad. I just… really wanted to do something good for you, Dante, at least once."_

 _And he was unable to stop her as she walked away. Even though he wanted to follow, he forced himself to stand his ground. There was some sort of helplessness filling him as she disappeared from his sights, a sad relief and an aching rage he couldn't pick apart._

 _She left and that was all he needed to understand._

…

The old chirping ring of the outdated phone fazed him out of his sleep, had it been replaced for a less grating sound he would've ignored it until it stopped. He cracked one eyelid open to confirm the light of morning didn't grace the windows of the obscure shop yet. He'd fallen asleep again with his back reclined on a chair while his legs rested on his desk, a lewd magazine slipping off his chest as he heaved. The phone didn't stop for a good minute. In a good morning he wouldn't have neglected a call, but he was too sour and tired to put up with it now.

"Devil May Cry… we don't open until 9." He yawned, and abruptly hung up.

It rang again right away. He had to repress a groan, having to hear the damned ring for another whole minute, so he picked it up just to immediately hang. It didn't work. The phone just kept ringing for another three minutes, and he almost felt like disconnecting the phone, but he just gave up the asshole-act.

"… Yeah?"

"Don't hang up."

There was a tired female voice on the other side, the light static making it hard to figure their identity, but he was pretty sure it couldn't be Trish or Lady, neither bothered to call him this early if they knew his habits well enough. "… Look at your porch."

"Yeah, no, sorry babe, but it's cold outside and it's not time for my morning jog yet, sooo—"

"Dante, this is important."

"Okay, bye~"

"Please just look. Help her, you're the only one I can count on."

"Who's this?"

"… Don't look for me." And they hung up just like that. If the receiver's sound wasn't crap, he was sure he would have recognized the voice. The message was too ominous to be from his close colleagues, so he could rule them out.

He stared at his shop's door, the idea of stepping out alone was such a hassle.

Putting down the phone, he took out one of his pistols, and threaded to the door with heavy steps, "I better not see a flaming bag of poop at my door, you hear me?" he shouted, kicking out the door abruptly.

He didn't shoot. Looks were deceitful and he often relied on his senses to find traps of supernatural hailing, but he found none, although his senses were alerting him of the presence of demonic nature he couldn't feel any immediate threat. There was just the chilly air of the dawn.

Suddenly, a new sound broke down, his eyes darted to his shop's porch, and Dante could feel his heart dropping down to his stomach.

The pitiful wailing of a baby coming from a bundle of clothes inside what appeared to be a cradle, right in front of him. "Oh come on, are you seriously doing this to me?" he groaned a little too loudly.

Dante looked out right and left, up and beyond, but whoever left this child at his door was already far away. He felt stupid and guilty for standing out there like an idiot while listening to the cries of the child for a solid minute, not knowing for sure what to do. He felt even stupider when he picked up the shell-like cradle, trapped in a weird mix of dread and fascination.

The baby seemed to lessen the crying when they noticed the man, but didn't seem to calm them, Dante was after all just a stranger in their eyes and haven't yet given the child a reason to stop being distressed. Dante could relate, he felt like he unironically wanted to cry.

"Hey… shhh… it's okay. Shhh, stop crying." He wanted to sound reassuring, but he honestly didn't know if it'd matter to a baby, he was still freaking out even as his arms shook awkwardly the little cradle. "That's it, no crying… Wait, damnit, what am I doing?"

He unceremoniously twirled the his left to avoid a painfully predictable sickle slash, when six wraith-like black demons showed up. He sighed, not wanting to even pretend that he cared about them. Besides, six only? Didn't they know that seven was the lucky number? Probably came in a rush, saw him distraught with a baby and probably thought he'd let his guard down. What an amateur's mistake.

Without letting go of the cradle, Dante yanked out Ivory and ducked other three attempts to cut him, he spun to give one of those Pride demons a roundhouse kick that literally plastered them to the other side of the street's walls, he gave two gunshots to the second one before headbutting a third that tried to stab him in the chest.

Dante went a little trigger happy to deal with the remaining four, yet felt too uninterested to add any more spice to his fight, these demons were relatively easy to deal with for him. The baby's cries intensified with the ruckus of the gunfire, so the faster he dealt with them, the sooner he'd be focused on quieting the bawling child.

After shooting down the last of them, Dante returned to his shop with the cradle still under his arm.

How more clichéd could this get? How many stories started out like this? Mystery parent leaves baby alone at the door of someone with the expectation that they'd be taken care of? Dante wished he could be less predictable than what had been written thousands of times. But he had to acknowledge that his reality had been nothing short of clichés so far, and nearly none had been more surprising than this.

The child eventually ceased sobbing, as if finally realizing that the man didn't mean harm, and the interior of the shop was significantly less cold than the porch. Dante hesitated to put down the cradle on his desk, now that he examined it more closely, he realized it was actually some sort of musty blue demonic shell, possibly from an insect-like spawn, and the clothes that wrapped the child was merely a bunch of dirty gauze. The child must've been freezing outside…

He unwrapped her from the thin cloth simply to verify that the baby was in fact a girl, small and soft, her face was all pink and eyes swollen from crying so much.

He finally braved to scoop the baby from the shell, copying what he's seen people do in movies when they carried a tiny child like this, his strong arms acting as a supplementary cradle.

The first thing she did when he held her in his arms was cling to his shirt, like her life depended on it. And in a way, it did. Her soft tubby little fingers were strong for an infant, testament of what she truly was, but he still cradled her in fear of breaking her little body.

She was calm now, her little blue eyes looked back into him, innocence and curiosity that were completely alien to demons. He wished he could be just as calm.

Dante had no idea of how to take care of a child this small. Sure, he had prior experience on jobs consisting of protecting and saving children from devils, but never demanded a whole lot of investment from him. Besides, from what he could make out, this wasn't really a job.

The fact that they even left her at his door of all places… Dante didn't want to dwell on it but his worst suspicions could be confirmed if he put the minimum amount of thought into it. He was tempted to go out and run to the streets, baby in arms, yelling and demanding an explanation for this bullshit.

He considered calling to Trish first. In the past several months they've grown a little distant and he felt awkward to call her in to announce 'guess what, somebody dropped a baby on my porch.' That'd been a good conversation starter were they still in better terms... But what were the chances of Trish knowing what to do?

In the end, he called on Lady, cryptically telling her to come to the shop quickly. She didn't press him for questions, saying she could be there in an hour or two.

Needless to say, the wait was hell. Dante just kept cooing the child nervously and whenever he felt like he wanted to pick a magazine or turn on the TV, the baby whined, as if not wanting him to leave her alone.

It was tragically hilarious, a big tough hunter like him losing his nerves with a tiny baby alone. He didn't want to panic, but what was he supposed to do if the child wanted to take a crap or if she was hungry? Dante wasn't really equipped to look after a baby's needs.

But then again, this wasn't a normal human baby.

The one who called minutes ago could only be _her_. Nicole.

The last time he was ever intimate with a woman was with Nicole, whom he tried so hard to forget for the past few months, to a degree. He was currently split between wanting to chase the madwoman to shove the baby back to her arms, or just letting her go and kick back this bad trip down memory lane for good.

One thing was certain: this was Nicole's baby. And he wasn't sure if being certain about the baby's origins that made things better or worse.

Dante looked down at the child for a while, examining the length and hair color. It was a little hard to tell if it was white or just a very light shade of blonde, but judging from how much its grown, Dante imagined the baby had to be only a few months short of a year.

And well, he hasn't seen Nicole for over a year, which led to… "Noooo…" he whispered with fake surprise, throwing his head back.

Before two hours went by, Lady came into the shop, her carefree mug dropped along her brown sunglasses when her heterochromatic eyes met Dante's little guest on his lap as he sat on the couch. Lady put down the heavy military bag she always carried to where work called her, not without eyeing her coworker inquisitively.

"That's a cute one. For how long do you need to take care of them and how much you're getting paid?" she sighed, as if this was nothing but a tiring unfunny joke.

Dante couldn't say he felt any differently from her. "This ain't a babysitting job, Nicole literally left her on my door early this morning."

Lady seemed to keep her reaction in check when he talked of Nicole, only offering him a knowing look, Dante briefly swayed his eyes somewhere else. "And you didn't feel her coming?"

"As I said, she only dropped the baby at my door this morning while I was asleep, she didn't even linger long enough for me to sense anything. She called at my shop then, she must be pretty far away by now."

"She called? How did she sound?"

"I haven't heard her voice in while, cannot really tell. Her words came off as desperate, if anything."

"Any note left?"

"Nope."

"Are you even sure that this is a real baby?"

That question made him tense, and in all fairness, this wouldn't be the first time Dante was personally targeted by enemies with particularly underhanded tactics. Lady was right to put the baby in question. Nicole wasn't the type to do this, but was he fully certain that Nicole was the one behind this at all?

Dante shrugged and picked up the child again, placing her inside the shell-like cradle, aware that Lady wouldn't feel at ease otherwise.

"You can hold her at gunpoint if you want, but she's just a harmless little baby, human or not."

"I'll be the judge of that." Lady reached into her military pouch and took what appeared to be a round ornate glass vial.

Holy water was used mostly just to distract or repel demons momentarily, although they usually left vicious burns on them for a considerable period of time, and devil hunters carried a few vials anywhere. Dante used to do it a long time ago, but he thought that the irritability that the water caused him wasn't worth the trouble. Lady opened the little vial and poured some on her leather gloved hand, sprinkled lightly on the child's arm. The contact with it made steam appear on the baby's tender skin.

The child shed a high-pitched cry, flailing her stubby little arms up, having no way to defend herself from the pain she obviously felt. Immediately Dante pulled her close to his chest, trying to shush the baby. "Well… at least now we know she is not entirely demonic, otherwise the water would've melted her arm to the bone."

"On top of that, she's completely helpless… Nothing more than just a child." he muttered, feeling like a jerk for letting Lady run that little test on the girl. He could see a glint of guilt on the bewildered huntress' face as she placed the holy water vial back to her bag. "I'm sorry, baby, sorry. You're okay now."

Both devil hunters shushed awkwardly at the child, both guilt-stricken and unsure of how to deal with this very human-like child.

Eventually, it seemed the baby's cries died down from exhaustion, the poor thing was sniveling and her burnt arm was shivering. He tried to cover it with the cloth, even though he knew it'd heal eventually.

He haven't panicked this much in years, Dante didn't have anything resembling fatherly instinct even when he had to protect children in the past. Why couldn't this be like all those other times?

Lady sat down on the desk, still perplexed.

"So, is this for real? She's yours?"

Her words struck Dante hard, his mouth went unpleasantly dry with the one question that he didn't want to hear for the answer he already had. He knew who this child was the moment he remembered Nicole, and that thought… frightened him.

Even seeing the burn marks of holy water not completely faded away from the baby's skin made him feel sick in the stomach, his chest was her only comfort. He didn't know what to do or how to deal with these alarming new feelings. He suddenly didn't want to turn his gaze away from the baby, fearing that she'd cry aloud again.

"What do you want me to say, Lady? I don't have a case against that assumption, for now."

"Well… you certainly look pensive about this baby. But whether she's yours or not, she was left here by Nicole."

"So what? Do you think she planned on this?" Dante sighed.

"If her goal was to make you take the baby under your care because she didn't want it anymore, it's definitely a possibility." Lady didn't know that. She knew that she didn't know that. But she also wanted to quickly grasp at an explanation to this conundrum, anything to dismiss the problem and move on with life. Dante, on the other hand, was still trying to digest what was currently happening.

"And… what if something else happened? I mean, she was literally pleading me through the phone." It was the first thing he came up with, and it just made them both uncomfortable.

"If that was the case, then we'd obviously need to search for her. If some stronger demon is after her and the baby, she must've… decided that she wanted to prioritize the child's safety first. But why did she leave? It's not like you'd turn your back on her if she was in danger in spite of… well, everything." At that last sentence, Dante hunched his shoulders.

"Knowing her, she'd just feel guilty because it'd look like she's using the baby as an excuse to stay with me."

Lady frowned lightly. "Many people use their children to force their partners to stay in a relationship. I didn't think she'd be sensible about this."

However, these were merely conjectures, and Nicole was the only one who could give them answers.

The baby seemed to get fidgety again, Dante's hands got sweaty against the cloth wrapping her, so he handed the child to Lady, who didn't even think when she held her in her arms to sway her. She obviously had as much experience as he did (none whatsoever), but didn't let that stop her from trying.

"In any case, if we cannot find her and make her take responsibility, this child still needs a proper home." The child's hands went up to Lady's face, she was visibly uncomfortable. "Yes, that's my nose."

"That home is obviously not here with me, right?"

Lady struggled with keeping the child's hands from touching her face.

"Are you mad? You can't really afford to take care of a baby in your line of work!"

And she was telling the truth. He wasn't sure why he brought it up all of sudden. The sole idea of having to make himself responsible for a toddler wasn't exactly enticing. But part of him knew that he had no choice, the child already existed.

"I know that. But this is no ordinary child, and I'm no ordinary man. Look, I agree that we should look for a better place for her, but in the meanwhile, I should be the one to keep her safe."

Lady sagged her stiff shoulders and passed the baby back to him, her blouse was dirty with baby drool.

"Just promise that you won't get too attached. This is no nursery."

"Can't promise anything."

Lady turned around, effortlessly picking up her bag as she walked towards the doors.

"… I'll just go out and buy some baby stuff. Do some homework yourself and learn how to change diapers while she's under your care, okay?"

Dante grimaced. "Diapers sound like another circle from hell."

"Can't have her taking care of her business on the floorboards. Then again, you never cared much about cleaning this place up, so I guess a bit of poop isn't going to bother you."

"Fine, fine, I get it." Lady was making this favor to him in the first place, he wanted to show a little more gratitude, but the morning hasn't been nice to him in particular. The baby seemed to breathe more calmly against his shirt. "… I owe ya."

"I still expect you to help me find Nicole. There might be something else we're missing."

He breathed, "… Let's hope for the best, I guess?"

Again, Lady wasn't wrong, but even if Nicole was in some deep trouble and was forced to leave the baby behind, Dante was busier deciding whether he wanted someone like that back in his life.

But she was truly never gone. As long as this tiny child existed, she would never be truly gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Trish half-expected to see something uniquely entertaining when Lady made her know about Dante's new little problem. She could at least say that she was impressed when she found the white-haired male on his old-as-god ugly couch asleep while a human-looking baby crawling on the ceiling above him like it was nobody's business.

He shuddered out of his sleep as soon as Trish closed the doors behind her and immediately cursed as he jumped to the ceiling to snatch the child. The creature he was cradling in his arms immediately turned on many alarms inside Trish's head, a simultaneous urge of wanting to wrestle the child off his arms to kill it, or maybe just attend its cries of hunger.

Dante shushed to the little devil hybrid in his arms. Sufficed to say, Trish could tell from the tired look on his face and the mess over the shop's floor that her former job partner had absolutely no idea of what he was doing.

There was dried vomit all over his shirt, he noticed with resignation after mumbling something about 'glad I wasn't wearing the good coat'.

Apparently he's been trying to feed the creature with regular baby food while Lady was away looking into the city for a clue on the mother's whereabouts, so he was kept awake by the task of learning how to care of the baby. So when he took himself for granted and decided to take a quick nap, the baby just puked the food and decided to explore the shop for something to eat… Trish had to contain her laughter, even a guy as powerful as Dante had his own limits.

"You're starving her."

He steered a dead glare at Trish. "She just throws up everything I give to her."

"She's a baby demon. A little of your blood should nurture her body before she can begin to tolerate human food." His eyes widened in realization.

"Wait. Oh. Ohhh, damn, you're right."

Trish didn't know how Dante was raised before the death of his mother, but he probably haven't needed it since he was a baby himself, but it surely had to be the blood of his father Sparda to feed both him and his brother. Trish did fed on blood when she was just born… but she didn't really have to think about it. At least it was safe to assume that Dante's hybrid blood would be good for the child.

Dante went through a few drawers, found a dark blue dagger he must've discarded unceremoniously years ago, its edge was imbued with magic meant to hinder the natural regenerative qualities of plenty demons. It would be a very powerful weapon if it wasn't so small and useless in pretentious hands. The name of the dagger was probably… Cronus?, she didn't remember it well. It smelled like ocean salt.

He didn't find a practical way to cut himself and make it look cool, so he just sliced his index finger open, he seemed mildly amused about the fact that his wound didn't close immediately. Dante sat again on the couch and picked the baby in his arms, this time he offered his bleeding finger. He almost gasped when the baby instinctively started sucking the blood from the wound. She was drinking hungrily.

Trish didn't know how to feel upon this sight, she crossed her arms as she tried to scrutinize the face of her old friend and then the baby's now relaxed expression. It was… relieving to witness such a warm scene with Dante, and Trish somehow felt like a participant of this.

It was weird to be included again in something unrelated to devil-hunting, for once to not feel like an intruder.

It wasn't like he'd ever call her an intruder or a nuisance, but she could simply sense whenever her presence alone put Dante on edge, no matter how good he was at masking it. For once, Trish was glad that he had something nice to capture his attention, so he could ignore their mutual tension. They haven't really talked in months, and nobody was going to say sorry first, so the baby was a good excuse to act civil.

"Now you're staring" he said nonchalantly.

"She's very unlike most demon spawns I've ever seen."

"Yes, that's because she's part human, you dummy."

"You know I don't deal with human babies. They're all pretty gross."

"I couldn't agree more. Wanna try holding her?"

"Pass." To this, she slowly backed away. The mere thought of allowing her to take in her arms one very human-looking child unnerved her. She didn't want to dwell on the reasons why it made her feel that way.

But that begged for the question: what did Dante feel about this situation? Sure, the uncomfortable implications about Nicole abandoning the baby without an explanation raised some red flags and no doubt they'd be looking into it for a while, but Dante seemed strangely laid-back about it, especially for such a personal affair.

Then again, Dante was the same as Trish when it came to handling their emotional issues: act cool and pretend nothing bothered them.

"Lady told me that a good place to send the child would be Vie de Marli."

"Yeah, we talked about that. There's a community made up of human/demon hybrids right there. Haven't been there myself, but she has. The baby might be safer in that place."

"… And are you convinced?"

He arched one brow. "What're ya talking about?"

"I mean, it's not a bad plan per se. Granted, if they raise her right, they will make sure she becomes an apt hunter for their clan. But if that is what's meant to happen, what's all of that going to mean to you? Will she know from where she came from? Would you like her to know?"

"Hey, hey, hold on a second! Don't make me second-guess about this, Trish! You know that I'm not really a dad-kind of guy, not to mention that ninety percent of time I'm plain broke. That's the perfect recipe for disaster-parenting. And if she did stay, I would have to teach her how to fight anyway, just with less resources. Not to mention that me and everyone ever I care about are basically walking targets."

Trish chuckled. "… Those are actually very good points. I take everything back."

"Yes, thank you!" As Dante energetically agreed, the little one started to whine and he had to pull out the nasty drool-drenched finger from her little mouth. "Huh, even with Cronus the wound closes a little too fast."

"Ever thought about breastfeeding her? Even if you're male it could definitely work." Dante's mouth hung open in disbelief. "Just kidding."

She found it hilarious that Dante still looked down at his chest anyway and then squinted back at her in silence while he cradled the baby a little above the half of his chest. He believed her for a split-second.

Dante shook his head and put the baby back on the little cradle as he headed to the back of his shop. "I'm just gonna bleed on the bottle with the formula, maybe diluting it will make her grow out of it faster."

"Go do that."

When left alone with the baby, Trish stepped more closely, observing. She was fascinated with how odd the creature was.

Most demons were born with some sort of basic intelligence, most of them were born ready to fight and to die. This child was probably half a year old and exhibited none of the aforementioned. This is why human hybrids were greatly despised in her kind, they inherited the curse of their human mortality and their strength was gradual and ephemeral. In a world where weakness was seen as the ultimate sin, any semblance of humanity was considered disgusting.

But Trish didn't care. She learned to not care. Nobody was born strong and strength wasn't permanent. Nobody would say it out loud, but strength was overrated.

"You sure you don't want to hold her?" Dante asked again, Trish watched the baby with the attentiveness of a cat who just found a shiny thing. He was holding a plastic bottle that contained pink-looking milk inside, for the baby.

"You sure you want to trust me to care for a child?"

He scooped the child in his arms and offered the bottle's nipple to see if she'd pick up the hint. "Dunno, would you try to eat her?"

"I was considering it."

"Thought you were on a diet?"

"I can allow myself a few guilty pleasures. I've been such a nice girl."

"Heh, doubt it. But yeah… I was kind of hoping that you'd keep an eye on her at least for a couple of hours. I've been holed up in here since yesterday and a man needs to stretch his legs. Not to mention that I'm hungry."

There was probably still some food in his fridge, but he never picked anything from his fridge when he was hungry.

"Lady is going to yell at you for leaving the baby to me."

"I can live with that."

Trish chuckled, the baby didn't seem to like the mix of formula and it was spilling down her chin. "Thought that you liked the baby."

"What? No! I hate this small screeching vomit machine. Please, just take her off my hands." Trish smiled at his painfully blatant lie as he gently cleaned up the mess with his already dirty shirt.

"Whatever you say, Dante. Just don't say that I didn't warn you."

"So is that a 'yes'?"

Trish shrugged, the baby did manage to drink up a little bit of that milk without throwing up, so it could be called a progress? Dante looked cautiously satisfied.

"I'll watch over her, just don't expect me to carry her… And make it an hour, no more."

"Gotcha."

He had to throw away his vomit-stained shirt after he laid down the child on her little cradle. She was well-fed and tired, she'd probably fall asleep if she was left undisturbed, Trish wouldn't be able to accept any other possibility.

Dante said he'd be going out to pick up a pizza instead of calling for delivery; he really must want to take a walk, and maybe some much-needed moments to himself. Otherwise, they would both be forced to talk to each other about something other than the baby. It was almost an invisible mutual understanding of each other's boundaries set by their awkward partnership.

Trish would respect his desire to not talk about their problems as much as he expected him to not reopen old wounds. They were good at maintaining the peace, not working for closure.

….

Dante sighed as he left the shop, looked into his wallet and briefly counted his money. He might have to ask Harry again how much he had on his tab, see if he could pay it now. He didn't need to walk more than six blocks to get there on a normal pace. Perhaps he'd even eat right there. Somehow he didn't feel like eating in the shop with Trish watching, to hell if she wanted some.

The pizzeria's owner was reasonably surprised to watch the mercenary walk into his place when most of time he only called for delivery. Dante just sat on the first to the small array of tables and said: "Same as always, Harry. Make it two. And since when do you serve more than just pizza? Why is there's a whole secret menu here that I didn't hear about?"

Harry, the owner, who just finished talking to his cashier, sighed at Dante with a hint of exasperation. "That's just the regular menu, Dante. Has been right for the last three years."

"Why."

"Business needed to expand. Became more family-friendly and has worked well so far."

Dante shrugged it off and just waved at the chubby cashier girl on the other side, who blushed violently and waved back at him.

"Hey, no flirting."

"I was just saying 'hi'."

Harry mostly put up with Dante's shit because years ago he saved his life from a demon, back when business was barely open, but Dante wished he was just as thankful when it came to the pizza as he haven't paid in a few weeks.

"I'll just read the menu real quick while I wait for the pizza, I might order something to accompany it."

"Suit yourself."

Dante found himself glaring at the kiddie's menu for a little too long, looking at the chicken nuggets and small burgers (Burgers!? Since when!?). He didn't want to think about Trish's words or the girl. He just wanted to eat a whole pizza and forget that there was a smaller mouth that he needed to feed until it became someone else's problem.

The past two days have become the longest he's had in years; on top of having to look up on how to properly take care of a baby and having to clean poop and change diapers, Dante felt genuinely scared for the child. He tried to not have feelings about the baby, knowing that if he allowed it to happen, he'd be forced to acknowledge something he didn't want to.

He ate a little too fast. It was disgusting and the other customers and the cashier watched in both awe and horror as he devoured three quarters of the first meaty pizza by himself. Because of his job and type of body, Dante consumed a lot of energy and needed to eat more than a regular guy his size, but usually he liked to take his sweet time to savor the food. In the last few days he haven't eaten properly either.

He told Harry he'd have the rest of the pizza to take away after he paid, along what he already owed him. Dante left the pizzeria with his wallet considerably thinner. He bought a 6 pack of beer on the way back to his shop, knowing that he exceeded the time that he promised to Trish.

Vaguely he wondered if Trish didn't eat the child while he was gone. Vaguely he hoped that he didn't have to change another dirty diaper as soon as he entered.

Then again, changing a diaper would be the perfect excuse to not talk to Trish about their issues with each other. He did his best to pretend that their fight didn't still affect him, the baby was a good distraction, but he could tell how awkward it was for Trish to keep on being in the same room as he every time.

Yeah, he definitely could take changing another diaper

….

 _"Just look at yourself, this isn't like you anymore. What's happened, Dante?" Trish's hands were on her waist, looking down at him with icy blue eyes. He finished to drink another beer can. "Why are you still putting up with her?"_

 _"How about you mind your own damn business?" His voice echoed in the shop, only the two of them were left in here, the absence of Nicole was suddenly all too noticeable. He just wanted to lie down on his desk for a little bit, was that too much to ask?_

 _"Do you think you're fixing her with your human kindness? Is that what this is about?"_

 _"Ugh. Shut up." He wasn't drunk enough for this kind of talk._

 _"No. Why are you letting her get away with all of this? Is pitying her really worth it?"_

 _"Trish, I swear, if you don't shut up—"_

 _"… For how long did you think we wouldn't realize there's something wrong?"_

 _It was at that moment when he jumped off his desk's chair, his aggressive stance didn't make a dent on Trish's opposition._

 _"The hell d'you know 'bout what's good or bad for me?"_

 _"She may act like a human, even feel like a human, but she's still bound to her instincts, instincts that she shows she cannot control wholly. You know that."_

 _"How dandy that you put her demonic nature against her when you're yourself no better" he replied with a dark tone. That certainly made Trish flinch. "How do you think it feels like to wake up every day for me, Trish, knowing that there's you walking around my shop, wearing my mother's face? All while I have to remember that you took part on what happened to Vergil too? How do you think I feel?"_

 _Trish gritted her teeth, and he tried to not look at her in the eye, keep himself from recalling his own mother's angry face. "Dante, that's not—"_

 _"With what right do you judge Nicole when you've done much worse things to me? Get down from your high horse for a minute!"_

 _"It's not the same thing…!"_

 _"But it's not a lie!"_

 _She was clearly hurt by his words, and Dante almost immediately regretted them, but he decided to stand his ground. It was easier to attack Trish rather than let her continue attacking Nicole, he decided. Of course it was base to use such tactics, but he's been hitting rock bottom for a while now._

 _The woman with his mother's face turned around and walked away, but stopped at the shop's door, so adamant on getting the last word._

 _"She truly loves you, I cannot deny that. But that doesn't mean that she knows the best way to show it."_

 _It was in a sudden surge of rage and pettiness where Trish barely avoided getting hit by that can of beer, as it violently clashed against the door now closed. He cursed himself as his fingers dug into his messy hair, feeling deeply ashamed for his stupidity._

 _He knew that Trish was right, but he didn't want to hear it or accept it. It was too late to do that._

* * *

 **Please remember to leave your feedback. Anything is helpful and can encourage an author to write more and faster.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3  
**

Her feet were small and incredibly soft, Dante felt extremely silly when he discovered how he liked to gently pull at the child's feet, see how she kicked him back while giggling. He was, of course, bored out of his mind if he found this entertaining, but if nobody was watching him right now, so it didn't weigh on him to play with her.

Routines weren't difficult on Dante, he was always a fast learner, but knowing that he'd soon have to give up the child made him want to put less effort on taking care of her. The child wasn't terribly bad-behaved after he figured how to not make her cry, but he observed that when she lost interest in the caterpillar plushie toy, she'd start to wander on her fours everywhere on the shop, she could even climb on the walls and ceiling effortlessly, her inherent demonic biology at work.

Second time he fell asleep she was already fiddling with the grotesque trophies he clipped on his wall with rusty swords. Dante sighed in annoyance, just when he thought it'd start to get easy, the baby would find another way to make him worry. He wondered if she wasn't too young to use a child harness.

They didn't think of buying a playpen for the baby since they didn't plan to keep her for long, but he was starting to have second thoughts. He improvised with leather stripes and attached them to her little cradle, hoping that it'd be enough to keep her still while he decided to take one quick nap.

He had a bad dream. Dreamt that he was a baby again and his father, Sparda, was carrying him on his arms, breastfeeding him.

Dante cursed when he jolted awake from the couch, not only to realize that the baby escaped the useless cradle, but also managed to crawl on the ceiling again.

"Damnit baby!" he snarled as he jumped to bring the little nuisance back to the ground. The squeaky laughter prompted him to pout at her. "Hey, I'm not your mom to always look after you, y-you…—"

He stumbled on his words, the torrent of thoughts he's been keeping at bay cracked through him, but the baby wasn't aware, as she only seemed to find his face funny enough to laugh at. She wasn't helping. While he cooped her in his arms he picked the phone and dialed to Lady's apartment, knowing she was still in the city.

"You busy? Yeah, she's awake. Look, could you come over for a bit? I've got beer."

"Good timing. Trish is tagging along. You don't mind, do you?" Lady's voice sounded distant.

"Not at all. She came here earlier, didn't she tell you?"

"Nope. Oh, she's now telling me that you offered her your first-born in exchange for a pizza?"

He stiffened but forced out a chuckle, playing along. "I think a first-born can fetch more than ONE pizza. What is she doing over your place anyway?"

"Nothing much. We'll be there in a few, and I'll bring some real beer for once, so hang in there."

Resigned, Dante hung up and he just laid the baby at the couch where he put his pillows and quickly pulled out a half-empty carton of tomato juice out of his mini fridge. It was a good thing that neither Trish or Lady were here yet to see him chug down the whole juice carton before he let himself fall on top of the couch beside the baby; his weight almost made the baby jump, but she was so amused by the sudden movement that she joined her little clumsy hands together as if she wanted to clap. "Ha-ha-ha, very funny", he retorted, as if the child could even understand him. Babies didn't understand stress, so there was no way for her to know she was causing him a lot of it.

It wasn't just the laughter getting to his nerves, it was all him and how he's started to behave since the child was left at his door. There was a thing he didn't want to let sink in ever since he realized the identity of the child, and it had been eating at him for days. It was a gradual realization that crawled deep beneath his hide and was finally coming through… and it was every bit as terrifying as he thought.

"I'm a dad. I'm a freaking dad..."

This feeling of anxiety was unlike anything he's ever felt before, and finally acknowledging the facts wasn't making him feel any better. It was like a bizarre dream he couldn't wake up from, not necessarily the nightmarish kind, just bizarre enough for him to feel uncomfortable and sick.

He had to admit it, never in his 20 years of demon-hunting business had Dante thought he'd ever have a chance at starting a family of his own. Well, technically his colleagues were kind of his family nowadays, but he thought more along the lines of what was considered a 'traditional' family. The thought crossed his mind, but he'd usually shrug it off as a distant possibility.

Besides, active demon hunters couldn't really afford to have traditional family. Not for long anyway.

He thought of his parents, thought of his brother. They were all gone, their memories were regretfully tainted. His father's reputation alone put targets on all his loved ones and once he got himself killed in battle, he was unable to protect them when they needed him the most. Contemplating 'family' made him contemplate the possibility of failing to protect.

"Well, I'm not THAT easy to kill." He muttered, picking up the baby up to his eye-level. She was completely clueless and still laughing for some reason, her tiny hands touched his stubble and then grabbed his nose. "Yes, my face is beautiful, thanks for noticing, baby."

But this wasn't just his child though, and that was reason enough for Dante to want to put this parenting business behind him as soon as possible.

He didn't spend the past few months trying to forget Nicole just for this new problem in form of a baby to come up. Even now Dante couldn't really tell if he hated Nicole or if he just hated hating her so much.

Nicole could be into some serious trouble, made the fact that she had to leave the baby girl behind and even give him a phone call all the more plausible. But knowing this, Dante didn't want to see her.

The baby giggled through her drool-dripping mouth, her diaper was full of poop again.

….

Trish had been on speaking terms with Dante a little over a year, their relationship didn't quite heal after their fight before he broke up with Nicole, they just remained safely distant to each other since each other's wounds were still fresh. Admittedly, this has been their longest 'break', and it couldn't be helped since their whole relationship had been extremely problematic from the very start, so more often than not, they would fight and take breaks from each other.

Even so, while Trish didn't live in Devil May Cry anymore, they still worked together when a job demanded a few extra-hands, through their emotionally-stunned hides they could perfectly work together as if nothing bad happened between them. They could even crack a few bad jokes to each other, have some drinks and greasy pizza after the job was done, laugh at their silly anecdotes, but their intimate barriers were unyielding and deep down knew that they couldn't talk it out. They used to be able, when they were in good terms, but they haven't been able to get back there again.

If it wasn't for Lady's meddling, Trish and Dante would be constantly walking on eggshells, much to the human huntress' annoyance. It was a good thing that Trish developed some fondness towards her, the arrangement wouldn't have worked otherwise.

Still, Dante wouldn't look at her in the eye, even when he greeted them as he finished feeding the child. She didn't mind anymore, the whole focus of attention was turned towards the hybrid baby and her sloppy blood-red mouth. Dante seemed to be in a slightly better moods than last time she visited… maybe looked more wise even. He smiled when Lady pulled up the bag with drinks

"Fancy-brand beer, huh? You're spoiling me like a sugar momma."

"This might be the only chance in this decade you'll get a beer this good. Don't ruin it" Lady replied.

They all sat around the shop's desk, cracking open the bottles that Lady brought in anticipation, the baby girl was calm enough to be laid in her cradle. Dante used a dirty napkin to clean up the residual blood on the baby's chin, rosy and content after being fed. Trish was the first to drink up, deliberately turning her gaze away from the child. They made small talk about job contracts and some rambling about their little adventure on Fortuna…

It was beginning to get annoying to tip-toe around the subject.

Lady sighed, she had been careful to not drink too fast as her alcohol tolerance was much lower than her colleagues. She eyed the child, who fell asleep through the adult's chat.

"So. This is definitely Nicole's baby?"

"… She totally is." Dante shifted from his chair, crossing his legs. His face had this miserable conflicted grimace, but the drink might've helped to make him loosen up enough to talk of the issue. "And No, there's no way I'd have known that she was preggers before she left. I kind of wish she'd have at least come back to tell me."

"Unless she didn't originally intend to." Trish added, having another sip.

Dante didn't even budge. "So, something came up that forced Nicole to leave the baby behind, probably to never come back?"

"And it's not like she doesn't care about the baby. She clearly has taken good care of her up until she left her on the shop." Trish replied, knowing that no heartless demon would waste their time nurturing a hybrid child. "But why?"

Lady tapped the mouth of her bottle. "If it was the baby who is being targeted, she wouldn't have done this. Something particularly dangerous must be after Nicole herself if she deemed leaving the baby to you would be safer."

Dante shrugged. "Can't argue against that. Nicole is good at covering her tracks as it is, so whatever thing is after her is quickly catching up to her trail."

"Do you know where she might be?"

He was silent for a few seconds, his eyes going back and forth between the sleeping baby and the shop's windows. Ultimately he sighed as he rubbed his face with his hands.

"… I can think of a few places. But, you gals… I'm not going after her."

Lady arched her brows. "Thought that out of all of us, you'd be the one with the strongest reason to go after her."

He twisted his mouth, clearly uncomfortable. "And I think I have an equally strong reason to _not_ do it."

"Look, Dante: nobody likes Nicole either, but she's the mother of this child, _your_ child. You can't possibly think of leaving this girl without a mother because of some petty grudge, can you?"

He just gestured to the baby, putting up a conflicted grimace. "It's not that simple…"

Trish tilted her head. "… You don't want to share this responsibility with her." To that, Dante finger gunned towards her.

"Exactly! Good for Nicole if she knows how to play cool mom, but I just don't want to have to deal with her at all."

"Fair enough. Still, we gotta do it, otherwise we're making ourselves look like huge jerks."

Dante groaned, finishing the rest of his bottle in one sitting. "Okayyyy. Let's just get this over with."

He let the bottle hit the desk a little too hard, and disturbed the baby, the crying rising to break the uneasy atmosphere between the three hunters. He immediately just picked her up to gently coo her wailing away.

"… Do we have someone who can babysit her in the meanwhile?" Lady asked.

"I don't think there's anyone remotely qualified to care for a part-demon baby. And we don't know how long we'll be searching for Nicole", Trish added, staring at the baby while taking the bottle's top to her lips.

"What'd be more irresponsible? To leave her with someone else or to take her with us?"

Dante shrugged, finally managed to quiet down the child. He's become good at handling her. "No right answer for that. But I'd feel better if any of us had their eyes on her."

They really didn't have much of a choice at the moment, and taking more time to arrange a safe place for the hybrid child could cost them the chance of finding her mother again, and they needed to move fast if they hoped to catch up with her.

Trish wasn't feeling particularly enthusiastic about this whole ordeal, and she was more likely to shoot first and then ask if she encountered Nicole alone. She didn't know if Dante would still be soft on her after all this time, and part of Trish just hoped he sobered up for good on the matter. Whether Nicole was a good mother or not wasn't going to erase everything else that she did before.

The irony of her own thoughts didn't escape Trish, she smiled sadly as she drank what remained of her beer.

"So, where do you think she'd go to hide?" Lady asked.

"First place would be her grandma's house" Dante said dryly, lifting the baby's cradle to his hip.

…

 _"Flowers?"_

 _Her wide black eyes immediately followed the sight of the white and purple hyacinths bouquet. He took an awkward walk to put them in her hands, as she didn't even know how to take this gesture. She kept staring down at the bouquet with a dumbfounded expression, and Dante could guess that this was the first time someone's ever gifted her a flower bouquet._

 _"I had no idea what you'd like, but I remember seeing these on your grandma's garden… Do you like them?"_

 _Her thin lips pulled into a slim smile, for a moment it seemed like her pale face gained a little bit of color. Her face was never her best asset, but it was when she smiled that Dante felt at loss for words. It didn't matter if it was only a disguise, he knew that the smile was genuine._

 _"You picked them when thinking of me, did you not? That's the only part that matters to me. Thank you." And she held the bouquet softly against her chest._

 _He could still see the light scratch marks on her skin, she adamantly refused to keep the bandage on because 'it didn't let her skin breathe', and she was probably right, but it still unnerved him to look at those scars in the open._

 _She noticed his staring and decided to turn around to look for a vase for the bouquet. "You needn't worry about me, it's almost healed now. It doesn't heal as fast as yours, but it's fine."_

 _It was true. By the time the day was over, she'd no longer have those scars. That was how most demons were anyway. She seemed to get over physical harm just fine, but she did fear and suffer at the moment it was done. She only seemed to fear pain. How much pain could she stand? Did she feel pain in the exact same way he could? Or was it something else entirely?_

 _He shrugged off his questions as he sat on his old couch, realizing how much it smelled like her. And old books. Oh yeah, since he let her bring her books from old lady Bridget's house, his shop started to smell like books, not ancient enochian tomes, not shady dark grimoires, just regular old books. Ironically, it gave him a nostalgic sense of normalcy that he sorely missed ever since he was a kid._

 _She had pilled up finished books on the table next to the couch, she was a remarkably fast reader._

 _"Slow down with reading time, bookworm, you'll be left without books to read when you're done moving them here", he chuckled._

 _"Oh, bold you of you to assume I'd only like to read them once", she replied, picking up the one she left on top of the pile. "Also, I finished this one recently. I thought that you'd like to read it. Its story is nearly identical to that one movie airing on the T.V. the other day."_

 _When he took it in his hands, he forced a grin. "'Flowers in the Attic'? This is literally the book it was based on. It's the same title as the movie, remember?"_

 _"It is? Huh." Whereas her obliviousness to obvious things could be endearing, it was sometimes testing._

 _"What? You liked that movie?"_

 _"Yes, but the book was so much better. That's… why I wanted you to read it."_

 _He knew that she liked the movie, but he wouldn't have watched it if he knew more about the story, the subjects turned out to be too uncomfortable for a pleasant afternoon watching a movie. "No offense, but I didn't dig the movie, I was falling asleep halfway through it."_

 _It was then when her hands pulled the book from him, the color in her face faded._

 _"I see. Silly me for trying to find a nice book for you, seems like I still can't do this right..." She looked down at the book with veiled contempt, her smile becoming into such an apathetic gesture that it hardly resembled what was just a minute ago._

 _His heart rushed, he hurried to hold the book still before she walked away with it._

 _"I'm going to read it. It's fine. Thanks, Nicole."_

 _To his words, her expression and iron-grip on the book softened. He almost sighed in relief: he really saved this one. It was a bad thing when she was left alone with negative emotions. He needed to humor her if he wanted her to feel safe and cared for, couldn't afford to keep making mistakes with someone so fragile._

 _Still, he truly didn't intend to read all of the book. He'd later search on the internet for a good plot overview to get out of this tightspot._

 _She wandered around the shop's lobby, looking at the old furniture they brought from her grandma's house, the only thing she thought it was worth bringing first. It was worn and made of wood, it looked like it'd fall apart if handled just a little too roughly, stood out like a sore thumb in his shop, just like Nicole did in his small social circle._

 _"… The bookshelf could be in a better place, right?" she asked quietly, walking under the shadows of the gloomy lob, passing her long fingers over the aforementioned._

 _Dante shrugged, putting the book down momentarily. "We'll just move it to my bedroom. It's cozier there, you know?"_

 _He wanted to catch her flustered reaction to that smooth talk, but she wasn't looking his direction._

 _With barely a whiff of voice, she replied: "Sounds good."_

* * *

 **Notes: A small peek on how was Nicole and Dante's relationship. Also mention of the book 'Flowers in the Attic' by Virginia C. Andrews, not a book I can easily recommend, but feel free to read it if the dark subjects don't disturb you.**

 **And don't forget to write some feedback if you can. It'd help me a lot to improve my writing quality.**


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